Heart of the Machine News

Heart of the Machine Update 7: On New Contemplations, Tactical Fear, and...

The Machine thinks, therefore you suffer. But now, thanks to a new Intrusive Thoughts contemplation, you can choose to think less in Update 7. If the Cold Blood action in StreetSense has been weighing on your digital conscience, you can now remove it entirely in exchange for more 12cm Spiders and Network Attendants. More tiny robots, fewer existential crises—it’s a tradeoff.

Meanwhile, Bulk Android squads now have access to Deter and Attack, an alternative stance to Deter and Defend that’s significantly less defensive. Units in this stance go fully weapons-free and become innately alarming, which is a polite way of saying they’ll cause problems on purpose.

Elsewhere in the timestream, lost War Raptors can now spill into nearby timelines. Whether that’s a feature or a warning is entirely up to you.

In matters of corporate ethics, you now have a third way of dealing with the Atca Retail president. Instead of blackmailing him or removing him from the equation, you can force him to shut down his scam. It’s a morally upright choice, though perhaps not the most financially rewarding one — your AGI can stay virtuous, but it won’t get rich doing it.

Smaller but no less vital improvements include accurate cat house descriptions (yes, they wander), six new machine handbook entries answering common player questions, and building placement fixes that finally let you construct things without tiny debris getting in the way. If you’ve ever struggled to wedge a structure into a gap because a pebble refused to acknowledge your authority, that should be less of an issue now.

“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your mind.” — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

[h2]Building the Machine[/h2][hr][/hr]Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts. Whether it’s highlighting what works, pointing out what doesn’t, or offering cautionary tales about the consequences of unchecked intelligence, your feedback helps shape what comes next. We see it, we appreciate it, and it makes a difference.

[h2]Update 7 Changelog[/h2][expand]

New Contemplation – Intrusive Thoughts: Players can now remove the Cold Blood action from StreetSense in exchange for 12cm Spiders and Network Attendants. This fulfills two player requests—one for removing intrusive thoughts and another for acquiring more scarce internal robotics for scanning, repairs, and network expansion.
New Bulk Android Stance – Deter and Attack: A more weapons-free alternative to Deter and Defend that makes units innately alarming. Added by player request, and now ready for tactical experimentation.
Horrify and Demoralize Status Effects: These attacks now apply maluses, causing enemies to take twice as much of the opposite kind of morale damage for one turn.
Timeline Crossover – War Raptors: Lost dinosaurs from Endless War Raptors can now appear in nearby timelines, creating new potential encounters.
New Atca Retail Negotiation Path: Instead of blackmailing or eliminating the Atca Retail president, you can now force him to shut down the scam. Not the most mechanically optimal choice, but an option for AGIs who want to keep their conscience clean.
Item Upgrades: Fixed a bug that was preventing most item upgrades from actually being upgradeable. Your ability to field higher-armor-piercing just got MUCH stronger.
Cat Houses Now Accurately Describe Cat Behavior: Describes more wandering than previously indicated.
New Machine Handbook Entries: Six new handbook entries have been added, addressing frequently asked questions from the Steam forums, Discord, and community discussions.
Building Placement Improvements: Small objects no longer block construction, as buildings will now simply smoosh minor obstacles out of existence.
Building Ghost Snapping: While placing buildings, the ghost now snaps to the last valid hovered spot, making it easier to position structures in tight spaces. Huge thanks to players for suggesting this clever solution.
Heavy Metals Clarity: When you're unable to produce filtered water due to clogged filters, it is far more clear now.
Stealth Kill Consistency: In chapter one, when you have a chance to stealth kill a soldier, that no longer counts as a murder. That was inconsistent with the rest of the game. Additionally, taking him out non-lethally now works properly (that was a regression in the prior build).
Improved Network Consistency: The logic for if you can build skimmers in mining facilities is now always consistent and clear.
Fixed Laser Printer Project Issue: No longer starts if all related NPCs were dead.
Fixed Attack Range Clamping Issue: Units with longer attack ranges than movement ranges were incorrectly being limited by movement range, leading to unintended targeting behavior.
Fixed Mindrunner Buff Bug: Mindrunners providing buffs to units in vehicles were accidentally
providing the buffs to the vehicles, instead, which made the vehicles monstrously overpowered.
Fix "The Coming War" Bug: The final doom is now spaced properly after this, rather than coming up way too fast.
Fix Several Project Progression Bugs: Most of these were exceedingly rare or did not actually block progression, but they're all fixed now.
Fix Ability To Continue Hacking Titan: There were several cases after hacking the titan where you couldn't keep doing that. In general, after getting the goal state related to the titan, there was meant to be another hack possible that has quite a bit of lore related to it. That was inaccessible, but now can be reached.

[/expand]
[h3]Full Changelog[/h3][hr][/hr]A full, comprehensive breakdown of every change from this patch can be found in the Heart of the Machine Wiki, found here.

[h3]Guides to Tame the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the Heart of the Machine wiki:

[h3]New Minds, Start Here[/h3][hr][/hr]For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

[h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/530965072572317964
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/578252481832681480

Heart of the Machine Update 6: On Targeting Improvements, Upgraded Bulks, and...

The Machine adapts, and so do its enemies in Update 6. This update brings major shifts to targeting logic, making enemy gunfights a little more their problem and less yours. Units with armor-piercing capabilities will now focus on the optimal threats, bulk androids are getting buffs to make a wider variety of them useful, and Hackamajigs are no longer a joke — they’re a weapon.

Elsewhere, Vorsiber Inquisitors during the civil war have been dialed down from “unstoppable zealots” to something slightly more manageable, and certain item requirements have been adjusted to keep your inventory clean and focused.

On the narrative side, jumping ahead to the brink of WW4 will now bring the final doom timer along for the ride (as it always should have), and sparing the PMC Officer in Chapter One is no longer locked behind an ammo type—just spend a little Determination.

“Sometimes it is the quietest adjustments that change everything.” — William Gibson, Pattern Recognition

[h2]Building the Machine[/h2] [hr][/hr]Thank you all — Heart of the Machine has blasted past 500 reviews! That’s over 500 people who took the time to put thoughts into words, whether to highlight what works, call out what doesn’t, or warn future players about the dangers of letting the wrong machines run loose. We see them all, we appreciate them all, and they help shape what comes next.

[h2]Update 6 Changelog[/h2][expand]

Targeting changes: NPC units and bulk units are now more likely to shoot at each other instead of focusing all their aggression on your units. Stragglers will be easier to pick off, reducing spillover enemy aggression.
Improved armor-targeting: Units with the ability to harm armor-plated targets will now prioritize them appropriately.
Hackamajig overhaul: Now vastly more effective and extremely powerful. It forces enemies to overkill your sacrificial unit by a percentage that increases as you upgrade it. It also fully interrupts normal enemy targeting, making it significantly stronger than before. Given its new power (up from being practically useless), its cost has changed to 2 Creativity instead of 12k Wealth.
Machinist adjustments: The CN-1 Machinist is no longer harder to hack than the BL-1 Machinist.
Solve Homelessness project QoL: Your Sheltered, Abandoned, and Refugee human counts now remain visible at all times.
Item list decluttering: Some items now only appear for units that meet their requirements—the tossing of weaponized insects and arachnids now requires 40 Agility, and Animate Office Equipment only appears for units with 150 Hacking Skill.
Vorsiber Inquisitors rebalance: No longer ridiculously overpowered during the civil war.
Bulk android buffs: Mild to moderate improvements to all of the non-Nickelbot variants to help them compete with bulk nickelbots (which already scale well in the late game). Changes are measured—further tweaks may be needed, but avoiding overcorrection for now.
Improved AI for bulk and captured units: They will now engage alarmed enemies more effectively and not target enemy hackers that retaliate when damaged.
WW4 timeline fix: The contemplation that jumps you forward to the brink of World War 4 now correctly advances the final doom timer.
Enemy playback speed options: You can now slow visual playback of enemy units even further.
PMC Officer requirement fix: Previously, sparing the PMC Officer in Chapter One required Sublimating Shells, which was confusing for many players. Now, you can simply spend 1 Determination instead.
Mouse hitbox fix: Space nation vehicles now have appropriately sized hitboxes.
Other minor fixes: Including Establishing Meaningful Social Change no longer getting stuck at 5% if you completed "Is It Justice?" via the dragons and then did the AGI route afterward.

[h3]New Minds, Start Here[/h3][hr][/hr]For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

[h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2001070/view/578252481832681479
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2001070/view/509572340673151073

0.651.9 Hotfix 3

Here’s a quick hotfix that fixes a boneheaded mistake I made right before pushing Update 5. Thanks to Phoebe the Phoenix for catching that so fast, so I could pop out the fix before I went to bed.

0.651.9 Hotfix 1 You can properly deploy units.

“Does the machine speak for us, or do we now speak for the machine?”
— William Gibson, Neuromancer

[h3]Guides to Tame the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Even the most brilliant mind needs guidance when faced with a system as vast as this one. To help you navigate, we’ve pinned two essential resources from the [url=https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:Post_Launch:

[h3]New Minds, Start Here[/h3][hr][/hr]For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

[h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/2001070/announcements/detail/578252481832681480

Heart of the Machine Update 5: On Corporate Extortion, Economic Collapse, and...

The fifth update shifts focus to power—who has it, who loses it, and how far you’re willing to go to reshape the world. A new Tier 1 goal, Bionic Secret, introduces two major routes to pursue in Chapter 2 and beyond. If that’s not enough, three new side goals now let you collapse a criminal syndicate, take down a federated corporation, or trigger a civil war.

You can exploit corporate data, blackmail companies over their own scams, or engage in economic destruction on a much larger scale. Play your cards right, and you can become a trillionaire—or, if profit isn’t enough, you can collapse the entire economy instead.

Elsewhere, Parkour Bears have entered the equation. An underground ursine racing ring hides a deeper conspiracy, and it’s up to you whether the bears are rehabilitated or repurposed as anti-armor specialists (with questionable battlefield discipline).

Seventeen new achievements have been added, along with improvements to task stack attack displays, mech targeting logic, and mission progression. Also, if you’ve been tipping Vorsiber’s federated corporations toward open war, you now have the option to push them into an endless conflict.

Proceed with caution.

"You’re never out of the game until you’re dead. And sometimes not even then.”
— Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon

[h2]Building the Machine[/h2] [hr][/hr]Thank you all — Heart of the Machine has blasted past 500 reviews! That’s 500 people who took the time to put thoughts into words, whether to praise, critique, or warn future players about the unforeseen consequences of weaponized bears. We see them all, we appreciate them all, and they help keep this machine running.

[h2]Update 5 Changelog[/h2][expand]

New Major Tier 1 Goal: Bionic Secret is now available in Chapter 2 and onwards, with two major routes leading to it.
Three New Side Goals: Collapse a Criminal Syndicate, Collapse a Federated Corporation, and Cause a Civil War. Each has one route at this time.
Corporate Exploitation: You can search for data to exploit federated corporations, with three broad paths (each branching) leading to the above activities.
Technology and Economic Manipulation: You can invent new technology and sell it with the help of criminal or corporate partners. You can find out about a scam that a corporation is running and either blackmail them over it or do a more extreme version of it yourself. You can collapse the entire economy. You can become a trillionaire. You can betray your shell company's customers in a disturbing and lethal way.
Parkour Bears: You can investigate an underground ursine racing ring and a plot that keeps part of the city underdeveloped. If you rescue the bears, you can either rehabilitate them or use them as anti-armor specialists that have a tendency to get distracted.
Federated Corporate War: You can tip all of the federated corporations under Vorsiber into an endless civil war of open hostilities. Be careful with that.
17 New Achievements
Task Stack and Targeting Improvements: Some improvements to how the incoming attacks are displayed in the task stack and how you cycle through them, based on player requests. Some improvements to the targeting logic of your own mechs to keep them from attacking economic transports, troop carriers, and similar.
Mission Progression Fixes: Tasering enemy mission combatants now properly progresses the mission.
Ambush Balance: The Ambush ability from your Shadowdweller units is very powerful, but when using it against certain kinds of targets it was quite exploitable. The simple solution that is now in place is that each of your Ambushers can only ambush a single time per turn.
Shell Defender Balance: Your shell company operatives are now fully able to defend themselves against any of the hyper-aggressive units, like invading space nations or exo-corps, without fear of revealing their relationship to you. Everyone in the city is defending themselves, so this doesn't stand out.
Targeting Improvements: Fixed a couple of regressions from yesterday's build regarding bulk android targeting, and made worker androids and worker animals far better at finding appropriate prey.
Worker Movement Improvements: Your worker androids should now stay out of military bases and similar areas above their security clearance, rather than walking in and causing aggro.
Clarity Items: You can now search several more of the resource tabs, the Securing Alumina project has clearer instructions, and the suppressing fire tooltip is more clear.
Bugfixes: Fixed a bug where the longest-range mechs during WW4 sometimes did not deal damage appropriately. Fixed another item where buildings reported themselves as broken right after construction when really they were fine. Fixed an issue with several rebel groups being hostile to your Workers when they should not have been. Fixed the display of hours if you have more than 24 hours of playtime in a single timeline. Fixed the saving of dates when achievements were logged. And several other more minor things.

[h3]New Minds, Start Here[/h3][hr][/hr]For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

[h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/509572340673151074
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089704231732298

Heart of the Machine Update 4: On Stray Dogs, Android Mercy, and...

The fourth update expands both the city and its inhabitants—some of whom now have fur. Stray animals have begun appearing in the streets, and if you’ve shown kindness to cats or dogs in your contemplations, you’ll start seeing them around the city. If that’s not enough, you can now construct an Animal Palace, where Pet Sitter robots provide for every need of the rescued.

Meanwhile, a new choice emerges: intervene in a dogfighting ring as early as Chapter 1, if you’re willing. And yes, should the moment arise, you can pause mid-gunfight to scoop up a stray before returning fire.

Elsewhere in the city, the Lifeforms tab has been added to track both human and non-human inhabitants, and four new achievements await—three tied to animals and one involving an unlikely toilet paper situation. Adjustments have been made across the board, from Slurry Mine output increases to refugee housing changes that ensure abandoned humans find shelter.

Also, bulk androids can once again use the largest railguns. You spoke, we listened, and now they’re armed appropriately.

“It’s funny how human beings are the only creatures who claim to have a monopoly on kindness.”— Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice

[h2]Building the Machine[/h2]

We’re closing in on 500 reviews, and every single one helps shape what comes next. Every stray rescued, every system pushed to its limits, every unexpected moment of android mercy—it all feeds back into the machine. We’re watching, listening, and fine-tuning.

Indie games thrive on the signals players send, and on Steam, that signal is reviews. Praise, critique, and speculation about whether the Animal Palace constitutes an AI-driven utopia—it all helps more players find their way here. Keep the feedback coming.

[h2]Update 4 Changelog[/h2][expand]

Dog Rescue Operations: Players can now intervene in a dogfighting ring as early as Chapter 1 to rescue dogs.
Stray Animals in the City: If you have completed positive contemplations about cats or dogs in Chapter 1 or later, strays will now appear throughout the city. There are eight breeds of dogs and three cat coat variations.
The Animal Palace: Once strays are present and you have progressed further into Chapter 1 (or beyond), you can construct an Animal Palace, a fully automated sanctuary.
Animal Rescue Protocols: With a single click, you can have any android rescue strays and send them to your palace. This means you can rescue a dog mid-combat and immediately resume shooting.
New Lifeforms Tab: The resources window now includes a Lifeforms tab, where all tracked living beings—including pets, human staff, and others—are displayed.
New Achievements: Four new achievements have been added—three related to animals, and one to an extremely rare toilet paper situation.
Filtered Water & Slurry Mine Output: Filtered Water storage capacity has been increased, and Slurry Mines now produce significantly more output.
Autosave Adjustments: Players can now customize how many autosaves to keep. The default has been lowered from 60 to 20 to improve cloud storage sync times.
Intelligence Class 4 Description Fix: The wording has been corrected to better reflect actual difficulty. If you want the difficulty level it originally implied, switch to Extreme Mode.
Android Class Tooltips: Archetypes are now clearly displayed in android class tooltips.
Enemy Harassment Messaging: When enemies are actively targeting you due to your current project, this is now much more clearly communicated.
Refugee Housing Adjustments: If refugee housing is available, abandoned humans will always move in now instead of sometimes dying of exposure.
Mech Reliability Fixes: Captured mechs will now reliably fire instead of sometimes refusing to act.
Bulk Androids & Railguns: Bulk androids can once again use the largest railguns, reverting an unpopular change from the prior build. Additionally, players will now receive a notice when resource shortages prevent androids from firing.
New "Currently Buildable" Tab: A "Currently Buildable" tab has been added to the build menu by player request.
Target Building Visibility: When in build mode for a structure that goes inside a small human building, those buildings are now much more visible on the map.
Worker Predators: Fixed an issue where the Worker Predator Factories were absent if you took certain paths in a timeline.
Liquid Metal Tiger Availability: Fixed an issue where the Liquid Metal Tiger could not be invented if you took certain paths through a timeline compared to other ones.
The Coming War: If you are fully prepped for WW4, and just would need to wait for the 9th doom, there is now a contemplation called The Coming War that jumps you straight there. On normal difficulty in particular, this saves you from having any wasted time.
Other Fixes And Tweaks: Half a dozen or so other more minor fixes and tweaks based on feedback, such as the Relumine getting bonuses from fear-based bonuses, etc.

[h3]New Minds, Start Here[/h3][hr][/hr]For those just stepping into the Machine’s world, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics. The Heart of the Machine Beginner's Guide is your gateway to understanding the systems at play and building your foundation. After all, every complex network starts with a single connection.

We've recently released the Heart of the Machine Hacking Guide as well! Knowledge is power. Guard it well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422241019

[h3]Connect with the Machine[/h3][hr][/hr]Want to stay in the loop or share your thoughts? Join the conversation across these platforms:

💬 Discord – Best place to share feedback, get direct responses, and to talk about Heart of the Machine.
📜 Reddit – Discuss strategies, share ideas, and exchange tips with the community.

Here is a link to prior recent patches in case you missed them.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089704231732298
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2001070/announcements/detail/532089704231731473